Gray zone

In the industrial chain of childbirth in the US, the agency is upstream and the confinement center downstream, and both provide services for Chinese families that want to have babies there. But the industry is more or less a gray zone, as neither the Chinese nor the US government have defined its legality.

An industry insider who asked to remain anonymous said that there are few companies with teams of 10 to 200 people, and several dozen with 10 to 20 staff. Most of the companies only have two or three people working for them.

If every customer pays a service fee of 300,000 yuan ($49,034), the largest company in the industry (which serves more than 1,000 customers a year) can register a sales volume of several hundreds of millions of US dollars. But an agency also has to spend hundreds of thousands of yuan per year on rent and staff compensation, in addition to ever higher advertising costs.

"We sign a consulting service contract with customers, which is under the administration of the industry and commerce authority. Visa services in China and medical services overseas are not covered by the contract," said Zhao Kanwang.

Meanwhile, the number of confinement centers in the US has skyrocketed. Statistics from AMSM, a US-based mom and baby care association, show that there were about seven types of confinement centers in the US in 2013. They included low-priced home stays, apartment styles, shared houses, hotel styles, independent villas, high-end clubs and family lodgings.

"The Chinese government neither encourages, advocates or objects to such agencies, because it is after all a small industry and involves national pride. The US constitution, on the other hand, stipulates that anyone born in or naturalized by and under the jurisdiction of the United States is a citizen of the country and the state of residence - and changing the constitution is extremely difficult in the US," an industry insider told the Time Weekly.

Therefore, giving birth in the US won't be shut down because of policy risks in the short term.

However, the China Press, a newspaper in the US, pointed out that as more pregnant women from the Chinese mainland go to America to give birth, business disputes with confinement centers are inevitable.

Most pregnant women who enter the US by concealing their real purpose usually choose to keep quiet when disputes occur. But those who are approved by visa officers are more likely to stand up for themselves, only to find that there's nowhere to complain.

A young expectant mom who stayed at a confinement club in Irvine, California, on Oct 15 encountered such a situation, claiming that the conditions at the club were not as advertised.

She had found the club online and contacted its representative in Beijing, a woman surnamed Li, who promised many "privileged" services, including "one-on-one" service two months before childbirth, a separate suite, and free organic milk.

But "it was a totally different story when I got here," she said, adding that none of those promises were delivered. Moreover, the so-called "club" was nothing more than a few rented apartments in a gated residential area, where three other such services often shared rented rooms.

Feeling cheated, she confronted the head of the confinement club, surnamed Pei, and demanded a refund. However, Pei charged her for housing expenses in the amount of $1,000 per day and threatened to report the expectant mom to the immigration bureau.

Pei said in an interview that she had been deceived by the representative in Beijing, who had solicited customers with false expectations. She also admitted that her confinement club wasn't registered by the California government.